I've been messing around with different ways to display holy power, and I'm kind of stuck.

At first I used a simple number above the target (in the same way I display combo points), and it worked perfectly, except that combo points are only shown if you have a target and holy power is always shown. Without a target, the position of the number felt out of place, but it's the only place where it's really noticeable.

So I tried a bar display. A 1-pixel high bar, like my power bar, didn't quite work out because it wasn't very visible. So I changed it to 2 pixels, but it's still not perfect. Then I added some glow around my player frame (we love glow) to emphasize when I have 3 holy power, but still it just doesn't feel right. Here's some pics:

What should I do? Change the bar colour so it stands out more? Just stick to the number? Do something else?

I would suggest having it at the top of the playerbar or as a number to its left or right. Alternatively add it as a plan buff which always spawns at the first position (just find a holy icon) and add count to it.

Raise the hp/mana text enough to make room for the bar to be top. Or
As I said, create a buff icon below your unitframe like you have for debuffs for target. Or even to the left, right of your unitframe.

Actually it is the target, that's the problem I mentioned in my first post. It's the only place where I really notice it, but it seems like it 'belongs' to the target and just looks plain weird when no target is selected.

I always thought that the way that Lyn had his shaman shields set up was rather nice. Water/lightning shown to the right of the player frame, earth shown to the left of the target. Having the charge number to the right of your player frame and moving the cast icon to the left would seem to look alright. I mean, you should know what you're casting so it doesn't really need to be more towards the middle of your screen (although I haven't seen what it looks like in action).http://s.wowinterface.com/preview/pvw17962.jpg

Edit: Photoshoped this up real quick to see how it might look assuming that your player and target castbars are relatively similar.

I think there's a reason most combo point displays I see in screenshots are still just big yellow blobs. Cognitive Science pretty much states, that any number below 6 (1-5) is best displayed with a countable number of simple shapes. I intend to keep that theme with Holy Power and Soul Shards for me, just big colored balls somewhere I can see 'em.

I always thought that the way that Lyn had his shaman shields set up was rather nice. Water/lightning shown to the right of the player frame, earth shown to the left of the target. Having the charge number to the right of your player frame and moving the cast icon to the left would seem to look alright. I mean, you should know what you're casting so it doesn't really need to be more towards the middle of your screen (although I haven't seen what it looks like in action).http://s.wowinterface.com/preview/pvw17962.jpg

Edit: Photoshoped this up real quick to see how it might look assuming that your player and target castbars are relatively similar.